Martin Rohde

Full book - open access. Which factors influenced the knowledge production of non-dominant groups in hierarchized contact zones? This question is discussed with the example of the Ukrainian Shevchenko Scientific Society in Habsburg Galicia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This young institution was the only centre of the Ukrainian scholarly community during this period, enabling investigation into nascent Ukrainian science through the history of this association. Although this book deals with a group of nationalizing scholars, the focus is not exclusively on conflicts, but rather on European entanglements as well as the possibilities, limits, and delineations of Ukrainian science in its pursuit of justifying the existence of Ukraine.

Shevchenko Scientific Society in East-Galician Lemberg served as a nucleus for the development of Ukrainian science since its reorganization in 1892. This paper tries to go beyond usual scheme of outlining the society’s internal development by considering Austrian state support and patrons from Russian Ukraine as major agents of support and even change. The connection to the Austrian Empire is furthermore interpreted as a key to
the German-speaking academic space, influencing Shevchenko Scientific Society as well as individual scholars and scientists. Based on these prerequisites, the functions of the society’s localization in Galicia are discussed and the heritage of this period is balanced at the beginning of the interwar period. Without suggesting economic determinism or overemphasizing this position, the relevance of the Austrian state’s support and its educational system is pointed out for this period.
Keywords: History of Science, Mychajlo Hrushevskyi, Lemberg, Shevchenko Scientific Society, Ukraine.

The paper investigates the difficult and often interwoven topographies of knowledge-making in the Eastern Carpathians during the long 19th century, discussing Habsburg/Austrian, imperial Russian and Polish approaches to the region. This is contrasted with reactions (and often collaborations) of the local population, as well as Russophile and Ukrainophile responses. Evaluating identifications and cooperations by locals with these hegemonial projects, and the appropriation of once-produced knowledge by them, I demonstrate the enormous fluidity and adaptability of local researchers and those interested in their specific knowledge.

Mary Louise Pratt führte das Konzept der transkulturellen Kontaktzonen für die Beschreibung von überseeischen Kolonialraumen ein, doch erlaubt ihre flexible Definition sozialer Räume auch die Anwendung auf andere Regionen und Räume. So greift dieses Heft von „Geschichte und Region/Storia e regione“ die Impulse, die Pratts Konzept anstößt, auf für die Untersuchung von Regionen in Zentraleuropa um 1900: Dabei richten die Aufsätze den Fokus auf die Habsburgermonarchie, während die Forumsbeiträge die räumlichen und zeitlichen Perspektiven erweitern. Die Schwerpunkte liegen bei Fragen der Mehrsprachigkeit, transnationaler oder transkultureller Kooperation sowie Wissenspraktiken in Kontaktzonen.

(Italian below)

Ethnography in Transcultural Contact Zones. Imperial Cooperation and
Regional Knowledge about Eastern Galicia

How was regional knowledge produced in hierarchized transcultural contact zones? This paper discusses strategies among the Ukrainian/Ruthenian scientific community in Habsburg Eastern Galicia through the prism of autoethnography and transnational cooperation with projects and institutions engaged in imperial ethnography (Volkskunde). In the state-sponsored popular science undertakings in question, public institutions exerted control in order to marginalize unwelcome or politically subversive currents and to support those loyal to the state. Once the Ukrainian community gained greater visibility through these projects, it was possible for experts to participate in more horizontally structured transnational networks and to extend the region’s visibility further. Thus, autoethnography is considered as an important tool for regional or national actors to create agency in hierarchized transcultural contact zones, i. e. for the Ukrainian movement to present its own idea of Galicia through German-language media and thereby to produce legitimate knowledge about the region.

Etnografia nelle zone di contatto transculturali. Il caso della Galizia orientale tra collaborazioni scientifiche a livello imperiale e conoscenze regionali
Nel contesto asimmetrico della zona di contatto transculturale sotto l’egemonia polacca, la produzione scientifica ruteno-ucraina in Galizia tentò di consolidare nell’area di lingua tedesca la propria narrativa sulla regione. Tra i problemi strutturali della scienza ruteno-ucraina vi erano sia la limitata entità numerica della classe intellettuale, sia la scarsa ricezione degli scritti in lingua ucraina. L’interesse per la conoscenza locale delle regioni non germanofone dell’impero asburgico, accresciutasi attraverso lo sviluppo dell’etnografia, portò a nuove opportunità di collaborazione grazie alle quali gli studiosi fedeli all’impero poterono trovare ricezione. Pur nel rispetto dei requisiti richiesti dalle autorità
imperiali, essi poterono così perseguire strategie di auto-indigenizzazione nell’esposizione generale del Land galiziano (1894), nei contributi al volume sulla Galizia della collana promossa dall’arciduca Rodolfo (1898), come pure nel progetto di raccolta Das Volkslied in Österreich (la poesia popolare in Austria). Le istanze di controllo erano strumenti efficaci per emarginare i gruppi sgraditi e le loro opinioni e dar voce, invece, a intellettuali fedeli all’impero.
Grazie al rafforzamento della presenza e della specializzazione riguardo a
contenuti e discipline di interesse transnazionale, gli studiosi ucraini guadagnarono sempre maggiore visibilità nelle reti accademiche transnazionali. Grazie ad esse crebbe significativamente la ricezione della produzione scientifica ucraina. La Prima guerra mondiale e la nuova rilevanza geopolitica assunta dall’Ucraina promossero la mobilitazione degli studiosi ucraini e l’ulteriore scambio con queste reti. Furono coinvolti esplicitamente quegli attori che potevano e volevano allinearsi con gli obiettivi delle istituzioni di lingua tedesca. Sia nelle costellazioni verticali che in quelle orizzontali, gli studiosi ucraini poterono sviluppare così una propria agency attraverso strategie di autorappresentazione etnografica.

This essay investigates the interplay of the senses as brought to the fore in travelogues, while describing local food that travellers consumed in 'contact zones'. I argue that the travellers' bodies served as a filter in the knowledge production. Such culinary knowledge, produced during travels to the Tsardom of Russia in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, as well as Habsburg Galicia in the nineteenth century, was an important marker in the construction of spaces. Even though both examples show clear signs of stereotypes connected to Central European imaginations of Eastern Europe, the focus on knowledge production helps uncover the effects of different underlying epistemologies.

For a Polish abstract, cf. the PDF, pp. 166-167.

This article discusses the possibilities which amateur participation offered to the young Shevchenko Scientific Society – limited to the description of the activities of this Society in the years 1892–1914. The Society intended to develop rapidly into an academy of sciences in the Ukrainian language, but lacked the necessary resources.
The existing network of Ukrainian associations in Eastern Galicia, which contributed to the development of scientific exchange, was helpful in achieving that status.
Before looking into the details of research agendas, the possibilities to use concepts of citizen science are measured for the context of the late 19th and the early 20th century.
The relation between ‘scientists’ and ‘amateurs’ is problematized on the basis of biographical examples of engaged scientists and activists, especially Volodymyr Hnatiuk from the Ethnographic Commission and Stanislav Dnistrians’kyĭ from the Statistical Commission. In order to understand the specific relations of Hnatiuk to his network of folklore collectors, their projects, aims and possibilities, Hnatiuk’s research is contrasted with the statistical surveys initiated by Dnistrians’kyĭ. Based on their archival documentation and published sources, these research projects are analyzed together with the different circumstances between the poles of “national science” and
“local knowledge”. The article suggests that Ukrainian amateur researchers contributed intensely to the nation- and region-building in the multinational Empire.

extended abstract on SHS blog: http://blog-studia-historiae-scientiarum.pau.krakow.pl/local-knowledge-and-amateur-participation-shevchenko-scientific-society-1892-1914/

Dieser Aufsatz widmet sich der Verortung der ruthenisch-ukrainischen Sprachgruppe in der späten Habsburgermonarchie, die über die Begriffe ‚ruthenisch‘ und ‚ukrainisch‘ im späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert verhandelt wurde. Dabei wird aufgezeigt, dass Selbstverortungen vielfältig und prozesshaft sind, also nicht mittels einer simplen Zäsur kollektiv angegeben werden können. Politische Ausrichtungen und Faktoren medialer wie politischer Kommunikation, Religionsbekenntnis, Geschlecht, Bildung und sozialer Stand gehören zu den Kategorien, die unterschiedliche Akteursgruppen mit jenen Selbstbezeichnungen in unterschiedlichen Situationen verbanden, wie dieser Aufsatz an  ausgewählten Beispielen argumentiert.

Based on the example of a Hutsul song, presented by a Ukrainian
scholar as representative for Ukrainian-Ruthenian culture
in Galicia, this paper investigates two trails: 1) How Ukrainians
were able to participate in imperial projects, despite their political
and cultural marginalization in Eastern Galicia; 2) How
Hutsuls were instrumentalized by scholars to represent the
Ukrainian language group. The paper analyzes the common interest
of Ukrainian scholars and Austrian institutions in Hutsul
ethnography. The author picks up on the hypothesis that images
of the Hutsul lands (Hutsul’shchyna), however different, facilitated
scholarly cooperation between Austrian and Ukrainian
individuals and institutions by shared ethnographic curiosity
and the compatibility of patriotic enterprises.
The paper draws primarily on the cooperation of the Ukrainian
Shevchenko Scientific Society and related scholars with
“Austrian” projects or associations, namely the Galician Land Exhibition
of 1894, the volume on Galicia from the “Kronprinzenwerk”
series 1898, Austrian Ethnographic Society’s cooperation
with Ivan Franko (1902–1906), and the musicological-ethnographic
project “Das Volkslied in Österreich”, 1904–1918. As
the author argues, for Ukrainian scholars, who had to work
with particularly limited funding and a comparatively small institutional
basis, these projects supported their research and
its reception, as well as pushed their scholarly biography. Furthermore,
the author introduces the consequences of idealizing
Hutsul art and folklore in Ukrainian scholarly discourse, as
it was closely linked to the comparative deprecation of the certainly
less popular “Ruthenian highlanders” Boiky and Lemky.

This paper deals with an expedition into the Eastern Carpathians, conducted in cooperation between Ukrainian and Austrian scholars in 1904. While shedding light on organizational dynamics and financial flows of the project, this papers answers why - despite many opposing expectations by researchers - only eight photographs of the rich photographic collection produced during the expedition can be found in Vienna. Concludingly, the paper lists and describes the preserved photographs in Ukrainian collections.

This paper historicizes the idea of "popular science" in the Ukrainian academic discourse in relation to contemporary approaches to "national science" (as "science proper") and places special emphasis on the introduction of regular scientific lectures to public audiences in early twentieth century Habsburg Galicia. The Shevchenko Scientific Society was the central Ukrainian association of scholars and scientists at the time. Male-dominated, and increasingly dedicated to "Ukrainoznavstvo" ("Ukrainian studies"), the Shevchenko Scientific Society paid little attention to the popularization of scientific research. The Petro Mohyla Society for Ukrainian Scientific Lectures emerged in reaction to the Shevchenko Society. Its goal was to expand public awareness of the scientific work, and its members proceeded to organize regular public lectures all over Galicia between 1909 and 1914. This paper analyzes such popularization of science, propagated by the Petro Mohyla Society, and examines the lecture audiences with regard to their location, gender, and respective interests.

This paper deals with the Eastern Carpathians and the issues of discoursive belonging since the late Habsburg period. Based on the views of national geographer Stepan Rudnyc’kyj and his opponent, Polish national geographer Eugeniusz Romer, the function of the Carpathians in the geographic imaginations of the national territories are discussed. In a second step, the paper investigates imperial and national discourses on Lemkos, Boykos and Hutsuls in the Habsburg Empire and its successor states. Thereby, it is shown how the appropriation of landscapes was largely based on the appropriation of its inhabitants. The Ukrainian national movement is not only interested in the Hutsuls in terms of ethnography, but also highly values their artisanship, which is perceived and even exhibited as art. Lemkos and Boykos were less prominent, but nevertheless important as borderland Ruthenians/Ukrainians. When the Polish state emerges in 1919, it uses scholarly and cultural measures to make all groups of highlanders loyal citizens. Asking for the local reaction of these groups, the paper takes a closer look at the often neglected Boykos. It argues that a growing cultural self-organization during the interwar period is responsible for their increasing activities in the cultural and scholarly realm.

Ukrainian translation of "Ukrainian Popular Science in Habsburg Galicia, 1900-14" by Diana Pavlys'ko

Уцій  статті викладено  хронологічну  послідовність ключових моментів  розвитку  ідеї«популярної  науки»в  українському  академічному дискурсізгідно зіснуючимипідходамидо «національної науки» (як «власне науки»).Зокрема,  зроблено особливий  акцент  на  введенні  регулярних наукових  лекцій  для громадськості  Габсбурзької  Галичини  на  початку  ХХстоліття.  Наукове  товариствоімені  Шевченка(НТШ)було  на  той  час основноюасоціацією науковцівв Україні. НТШ, в якому працювало більшість чоловіків, і яке все більше займалось вивченням українознавства, приділяло мало уваги популяризації наукових досліджень.У відповідь на  створення НТШбуло сформовано також і Товариство українських наукових викладів ім.Петра  Могили(ТУНВ  ім.  П.Могили). Його  метою  було  поглибленняобізнаностігромадськості  про  наукову  роботу,  і  тому  його  члени  почали організовувати регулярні публічні лекції по всій Галичині між 1909 і 1914 роками. У цій статті проаналізовано популяризацію науки, що пропагувалася ТУНВ ім. П.Могили, і досліджено коло слухачівлекцій з урахуванням їхнього місцяпроживання, гендерної приналежності та відповідних інтересів.

In this paper on university conflicts I discuss how Galician Ukrainians perceived the German-Italian conflict at the university of Innsbruck during the early 20th century. I suggest the relevance of this knowledge for organizational as well as political strategies implemented in Lemberg/L'viv/Lwów.
Open access to the complete book: https://diglib.uibk.ac.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubi:3-5384
The list of references was integrated in collective bibliography, pp. 215-236.

In this paper on university conflicts I discuss how Galician Ukrainians perceived the German-Italian conflict at the university of Innsbruck during the early 20th century. I suggest the relevance of this knowledge for organizational as well as political strategies implemented in Lemberg/L'viv/Lwów.
Ukrainian translation of the German paper "Innerimperiale Lernprozesse? Die Nationalitätenproblematik der Innsbrucker Universität im frühen 20. Jahrhundert aus galizisch-ukrainischer Perspektive"
Open access to the complete book: https://diglib.uibk.ac.at/ulbtirolfodok/content/pageview/3780858
The list of references was integrated in collective bibliography, pp. 217-238

Workshop, 25–26 September 2023, IOS Regensburg, Germany

The Russian war against Ukraine resulted in a massive displacement of Ukrainian scholars and increasing attempts to make knowledge on Ukraine. At the same time a discussion emerged about the persons who could legitimately claim expertise about the country. The figure of the expert has oscillated between the “native informants,” whose legitimacy came from their local knowledge, and “Westsplainers,” whose local expertise was questionable. Acknowledging that the question of legitimacy is also a question about the situatedness of knowledge, we propose to investigate practices of knowledge making on the Ukrainian lands, its inhabitants and its recent history, with a focus on the interwar period.
World War I put Ukraine on the mental maps of Europe, both as an imagined construct and as a body of separate political entities. Ukraine appeared on maps and in international debates, and Ukrainian intellectuals were visible like never before due to the global interest in the region and their political impetus to legitimize their own knowledge on Ukraine. After the Great War, the displacement of scholars and politicians increased their entanglements with non-Ukrainian institutions and scholars all over Europe.
At the end of WWI, the imagined Ukrainian lands were integrated as new regions into various states. In the interwar decades they remained a subject of intensified interest in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. Inquiries involved a range of actors apart from professional academics, such as officials, citizen scientists, entrepreneurs, teachers, travel authors, translators, memoirists, and photographers. Whether minorities or émigrés, Ukrainian intellectuals were subjected to power relations and often violence, which also limited their possibilities to become part of official discourses about the regions of their origins. The attitude towards them ranged from active cooperation to complete ignorance, often in reciprocity with ideologies and loyalties to state-building, nation-building or geopolitical projects.